Carlisle United boss on Nottingham Forest loanee Fin Back

The Blues have been managing the loanee’s workload at the start of the season on the advice of parent club Nottingham Forest.

That has seen Back miss both United’s midweek games so far, amid his early steps back into first-team action following last season’s hamstring injuries.

Simpson has honoured Forest’s wishes but says the 20-year-old will now be considered available for each game provided he is fit.

“It’s not that Forest have said he isn’t allowed to play, they’re just advising us not to play him,” said Simpson after the 1-1 draw with Wigan Athletic, which saw Jack Ellis take Back’s place in the side.

“That’s the last one of those now, though. We’ve got two weeks before we go Saturday-Tuesday again.

“We’ve done everything they’ve asked, he [Back] is getting all the minutes and doing everything in training, so it’s now a case of selection whether he gets in the team or not.

“He’s now available as far as I’m concerned.”

While Back should return for Saturday’s home clash with Exeter City, midfielder Dylan McGeouch could again miss out.

The summer signing was ruled out last night as he works his way back from the hamstring injury that kept him out of Saturday’s defeat at Oxford United.

Dylan McGeouch (Image: Ben Holmes)

The former Celtic man is set to return to full training later this week but is unlikely to be risked against Exeter.

Asked if the Grecians game would be too soon for McGeouch, manager Simpson said: “Probably. Because we’ve got others, people like Jayden [Harris] and Taylor [Charters] who are fully fit.

“He [McGeouch] has done a bit of work today so we’re hoping we can build him up and get him back into full training.”

Simpson said it was always the plan to substitute Owen Moxon and Sean Maguire midway through Tuesday’s second half.

Moxon was back from illness while it was Maguire’s first start for the Blues.

United’s manager, meanwhile, said those players who did not make Tuesday’s squad will get minutes under their belts soon.

“Jayden was really unfortunate to miss out tonight, [but] it’s the mix I want on the bench that has to be right, so people like him, Corey Whelan, Jack Robinson, they were left out of it,” said Simpson.

“I get that there will be frustrations. Jack Robinson has come into the club and had a really strong pre-season, but unfortunately for him Jack Armer is ahead of him at this moment.

“It may be that Robbo gets an opportunity soon. My hope is that people like Jayden, Corey and Robbo stay with it and stay with the group.

“When you have to put that level of work in like we have tonight, we are going to need everybody. We did 117km in the first game of the season as a group and 118km on Saturday, we didn’t do anything like that last season so that shows the work they’re putting in. We’ve got to make sure everybody sticks together.

“There was a group of five or six lads who trained this afternoon because it’s important. I only put 18 in the squad today which isn’t what I normally do, but it was important that the others got training into them.

“They’ll come into the team and we expect them to come in and be up to speed, but if we don’t get them up to speed they won’t get up to speed.

“They’ve trained today, we’ve got a friendly fixture arranged next week, the Central League Cup the week after and then the [EFL] Trophy game the week after that.

“We’ve got games coming thick and fast and we need to give them the opportunity to show us what they’re all about.”